STATISTICS ON RACIAL JUSTICE

In 2001, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that 10% of white Americans did not have health insurance compared to 19% of African Americans and 33.2$ of Hispanics. (www.nccj.org).

The National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ) reports that 68% of Americans believe racism is a problem in education­­­- 20% say it’s a major problem (www.nccj.org).

More than one in for Hispanic youth drop out of school, and nearly half leave school by eighth grade (Focus Adolescent Services www.focusas.com/Dropouts.html).

Of the 43% of minority children attending public schools more than half are poor and more than two-thirds fail to reach basic levels on national tests. (Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation www.eisenhowerfoundation.org)

In 2002, the median U.S. household income for all races was $42, 760; for Asian households it was $50,604; white non-Hispanic/Latino households, $47,199; black households, $31,408; and Hispanic/Latino households, $35,447. (www.census.gov).

Every hour someone commits a hate crime (www.tolerancer.org).

Everyday at least eight blacks, three whites, three gays, three Jews and one Latino become hate crime victims (www.tolerance.org).

According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), studies in several states show that African Americans and Hispanics were being stopped for routine traffic violations in excess of their representation in the population. (Source: ACLU Letter to the Senate 2/19/04 www.aclu.org.

The average black student is 3½ years behind the average white student in math, nearly 4 years behind in reading, and 5½ years behind in science (Source: Telling A Different Story of Racism in America by Stephen and Abigail Thernstrom).

Students are hate crime targets. 12% of students ages 12-18 reported that they had been the subjects of hate-related insults at school during the 6 months prior to a 2003 survey. 36% of students had seen hate-related graffiti at their school. Insults included comments about race, religion, ethnicity, disability, gender and/or sexual orientation (YWCA USA Hate Crimes Fact Sheet).

The FBI has reported a dramatic increase in hate-motivated violence since September 11th. Anti-Islamic crimes increased from 28 in 2000 to 481 in 2001, representing an increase of over 1600%. In 2002, 155 Anti-Islamic Crimes were reported to the FBI, five times the number of anti-Islamic crimes reported in 2000 (YWCA USA Hate Crimes Fact Sheet).

Black and Hispanic women have been unfairly profiled at U.S. airports. A 2000 General Accounting Office Report on the activities of the United States Customs found that Black female U.S. citizens were 9 times more likely, and Hispanic female U.S. citizens were 4 times more likely, than white female, U.S. citizens to be x-rayed after being frisked. Black women were also less than half as likely as white women to be found carrying contraband (YWCA USE End Racial Profiling Fact Sheet).

Racial profiling is a common practice carried out by law enforcement conducting traffic and pedestrian stops. A. U.S. Department of Justice report on police contacts with the public found that African Americans were 20% more likely than Whites to be stopped and 50% more likely to have experienced more than one stop. This report also revealed that although  African Americans and Hispanics were more likely to be stopped and searched, they were less likely to be in possession of contraband. On average, searches and seizures of African American drivers yielded evidence only 8% of the times, searches and seizures of Hispanic drivers yielded evidence only 10% of the time, and searches and seizures of white drivers yielded evidence 17% of them time (YWCA USA End Racial Profiling Fact Sheet).

In 2003, of those who identified themselves as being of one race, African-Americans experienced violent crime at the highest rate (NationalCenter for Victims of Crime).

In 2003, approximately 732,668 Hispanics were victims of violent crime in the United States (NationalCenter for Victims of Crime).

The percentage of African-American men (47 percent) and women (60 percent) who reported their violent victimization to the police was higher than for any other racial or ethnic group in 2003 (National Center for Victims of Crime).

Native Americans are at greatest risk of being victims of fraud: almost 34 percent of survey participants in this group had been victims of fraud (NationalCenter for Victims of Crime).

The likelihood of being a victim of fraud for African Americans (17 percent) was greater than that of Hispanics (14 percent), or others (Hawaiians, Asians, and Pacific Islanders) (7 percent), with non-Hispanic whites the least likely to be fraud victims (6 percent) (National Center for Victims of Crime).

Of reported hate crimes in 2003, 50 percent were motivated by race (NationalCenter for Victims of Crime).